Hi, if anyone could help with the issues affecting my My Passport Essential USB 2.5" drive (bought in 2012 in Singapore, in case that helps), i’d be really really grateful.
It’s been working fine until last week. Now when i connect the drive via USB to my desktop (Windows 10 64bit), a few strange effects happen:
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Windows won’t shut down. It will sleep, log off, and even restart, but clicking ‘shut down’ just does nothing at all. When the drive is unplugged, it shuts down normally.
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Trying to access the drive’s contents results in endless loading in File Explorer. However, the virtual CD works fine.
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Running Windows’ Disk Management (to do a reformat) results in the interface hanging at “Connecting to Virtual Disk Service”. The utility is completely unusable, even to view other drives.
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WD’s Quick Format tool in the virtual CD launches, but the reformat process never completes even after many hours.
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WD’s Data Lifeguard fails to run when the drive is connected. Doesn’t even launch.
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Perhaps most weirdly, when the drive is connected, my internet connection is affected (probably something to do with USB since i use a USB wi-fi receiver). I can only access Google sites and nothing else. Weird huh. When the drive is unplugged the problem disappears.
Signs of trouble began when Smartware failed to remove the password protection on my drive. I uninstalled it and the SES drivers hoping to start over on a clean slate and reformat the drive, but here we are. Nothing i’ve tried works.
At this point i’m fully prepared to simply discard the drive, but not before giving the community here a go.
Thanks again!